pool – mauter.com

Entering the world of swimming

Samantha loves to swim. I’m not sure how that happened because she was terrified of the water for several years. We had some good lifeguard swim instructors from ages 3-5, and she slowly began to enjoy the water. I had no idea just how much she would enjoy it.

At the end of summer 2014, she was so sad to say goodbye to our neighborhood pool. We had been bouncing around at sports, so we decided the next sport would be swimming. After calling around and ending up at the Y, we started in this weird world of swimming.

We go back to our neighborhood pool during the summer, but we have been swimming twice a week for 2 years now. It’s great exercise and she enjoys it. I finally convinced her to try a swim meet. She loves being timed, but was afraid of the competition from some reason. After much convincing, we finally made it.

She had a blast. She only swam in four races (a 25 m of each of the strokes) but she did come in 1st in her heat during two of those races. Lots of fun. She wants to try more of the smaller meets. What an interesting world.

Swimming

We’ve been doing a lot of swimming this summer. There is a community pool about a mile from our house, so getting there is easy. We have been going to this pool for several years because it was the babysitter’s pool, and they offer lessons even if you are not a member.

This year, I tried all summer to get lessons, but it hasn’t worked out so far. However, since we go 3 or 4 times each week to the pool, the girls are doing great! Sam has learned to swim underwater, jump in, and tread. Ellie jumps in (she did it before Sam), is a great kicker and uses her arms a good bit too. She still uses a float, but likes to practice with a kick board.

What’s funny about Sam jumping in is that she stands at the edge of the pool and holds her nose. As she jumps in, she lets go of her nose. She only jumps in at the shallow end, so her head is not going underwater. We’ll see what happens if she gets water up her nose.

We’ve had a great time at the pool all summer even though we’ve had a record amount of rain. Like I said, it’s so close to our house that we can easily come and go if it rains.

Swimming Lessons

Samantha is deeply afraid of getting her ears wet. In the bath tub and, now that it is summer, in the pool, this presents a problem.

We started swimming lessons last week, and she made significant progress in the 3 days of lessons. We will continue this week in hopes of solidifying her independence in the water. Let’s just hope the weather holds out.

Swimming Lessons

I have been behind on getting Samantha prepared for the pool. She spends a good deal of time around one during the summer months, but she’s never had lessons. This summer, it’s time. We’re starting with a class at the Lakeshore Foundation through Swimwell. I hope to have an additional class throughout the summer, but we’ll see.

There was some of this:

But also some of this:

Hopefully, we’ll have more of this: